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United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Sustainable Development
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Science

Description

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development describes in paragraph 70 the composition and task of the Technology Facilitation Mechanism, established by the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and aimed at supporting the Sustainable Development Goals. More specifically, paragraph 70 of the 2030 Agenda reads: “the Technology Facilitation Mechanism will be based on a multi-stakeholder collaboration between Member States, civil society, private sector, scientific community, United Nations entities and other stakeholders and will be composed of: a United Nations Interagency Task Team on Science, Technology and Innovation for the SDGs, a collaborative Multistakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the SDGs and an on-line platform.”

Sustainable Development Goals Targets 17.6 and 17.8 respectively aim to “Enhance North-South, South-South and triangular regional and international cooperation on and access to science, technology and innovation and enhance knowledge sharing on mutually agreed terms, including through improved coordination among existing mechanisms, in particular at the United Nations level, and through a global technology facilitation mechanism“ and to “fully operationalize the technology bank and science, technology and innovation capacity-building mechanism for least developed countries by 2017 and enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology”.

Prior to the 2030 Agenda, the Rio+20 outcome document The Future We Want called for a Global Sustainable Development Report to bring together dispersed information and existing assessments, and to strengthen the science–policy interface at the High-level Political Forum on sustainable development (HLPF), through Paragraph 85.k.

As recalled by the Prototype Global Sustainable Report, published in 2014, the United Nations Secretary-General tasked, following Rio+20, the Division for Sustainable Development of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs to undertake “in-depth analysis and evaluation of trends and scientific analysis in the implementation of sustainable development, including lessons learned, best practices and new challenges, and cross-sectoral analysis of sustainable development issues”.

On that occasion, it was decided to produce a “prototype” report to facilitate dialogue between scientists and decision-makers and to establish for this purpose a United Nations system task team.

Decisions related to science were also taken by the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in 2002, by the Commission on Sustainable Development at its third (1995), fifth (1997) and sixth (1998) sessions and by the United Nations General Assembly at its Special Session to review the implementation of Agenda 21 (1997).

The Plan of Implementation adopted by WSSD underlined the importance of science-based decision-making, inter alia, by: integrating scientists' advice into decision-making bodies; partnerships between scientific, public and private institutions; improved collaboration between natural and social scientists, and establishing regular channels for requesting and receiving advice between scientists and policy makers; making greater use of integrated scientific assessments, risk assessments and interdisciplinary and intersectoral approaches; increasing the beneficial use of local and indigenous knowledge. Strengthening and creating centres for sustainable development in developing countries were encouraged, as well as networking with and between centres of scientific excellence and between science and education for sustainable development. Tools for science-based decision-making and sharing of knowledge and experiences to be promoted include: information and communication technologies, ground-based observations, satellite technologies, and national statistical services capable of providing sound data, assessment models, accurate databases and integrated information systems. The Plan also urged support for publicly funded research and development entities to engage in strategic alliances for the purpose of enhancing research and development.

The special session of the General Assembly held in June 1997 to review progress five years after UNCED stressed the need for authoritative scientific evidence for assessing environmental conditions and changes, which would facilitate international consensus-building. Scientific cooperation was to be promoted across disciplines for that purpose, and building scientific and technological capacity in developing countries was extremely important in that regard.

Science for sustainable development is the focus of Chapter 35 of Agenda 21. It calls for:

  • strengthening the scientific basis for sustainable management;
  • enhancing scientific understanding;
  • improving long-term scientific assessment; and
  • building up scientific capacity and capability.
Displaying 76 - 90 of 121
Title Type Date
Monitoring disaster risk reduction targets: the example of INFORM Other documents 22-Jul-2015
MONITORING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS: NOTE ON BASELINES FOR DRR TARGETS AND INDICATORS Other documents 22-Jul-2015
Basic data on ICT in education in Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs), Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and… Other documents 22-Jul-2015
Disaster risk reduction; a cross-cutting necessity in the SDGs Other documents 22-Jul-2015
UNESCO’s Action in Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) Other documents 22-Jul-2015
Estimating populations affected by disasters: A review of methodological issues and research gaps Other documents 22-Jul-2015
Evidence based target setting for disaster risk reduction in urban areas Other documents 22-Jul-2015
Input on LDCs to GDSR 2015 - UNCTAD LDC Section Other documents 22-Jul-2015
Loss Data Underpinning Disaster Risk Reduction Other documents 22-Jul-2015
The grand green challenge: Assessing progress in eco-innovation through Y02 patents Other documents 22-Jul-2015
Thoughts on Big Data and the SDGs Other documents 22-Jul-2015
Education in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) - UNESCO Institute for Statistics Other documents 22-Jul-2015
DISASTER REDUCTION THROUGH RISK TARGETS Other documents 22-Jul-2015
Science, technology and innovation in Landlocked Developing Countries, Least Developed Countries and Small… Other documents 22-Jul-2015
A/RES/69/313- Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (Addis… Resolutions and decisions 15-Jul-2015
Displaying 76 - 90 of 183
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Mr. Jaikumar Sabanayagam, Information System Officer, UN OICT, Bangkok, Thailand Session 8 11-Dec-2019
Ms. Bolor-Erdene Battsengel, Access Solutions, Mongolia Session 11 11-Dec-2019
Mr. Napoleon Concepcion, Governor, Board of Investment (BOI), The Philippines Session 11 11-Dec-2019
Mr. Wei Liu, Coordinator, UN Inter-agency Task Team on STI for the SDG, Co-lead of… Session 10 11-Dec-2019
Prof. Sachin Chaturvedi, Director General at the Research and Information System for… Session 11 11-Dec-2019
Mr. Wang Wei, Deputy Director General, Nanjing Municipal Financial Regulatory Bureau… Session 6 10-Dec-2019
Dr. Araba Sey, Principal Research Fellow / Head of Research, UN University Institute… Session 5 10-Dec-2019
Dr. Thazin Han, Director, Department of Research and Innovation, Ministry of Education,… Session 5 10-Dec-2019
Dr. Sarasija Padmanabhan, Patent Consultant, Indian Institute of Science Campus, India… Session 7 10-Dec-2019
Mr. Anthony C. Sales, Regional Director, Department of Science and Technology, the… Session 5 10-Dec-2019
Dr. Chaiyatorn Limapornvanich, Innovation Strategy Manager, National Innovation Agency,… Session 5 10-Dec-2019
Mr. Has Bunton, Secretary General, National Science and Technology Council, Ministry of… Session 3 9-Dec-2019
Mr. Jonathan Tsuen Yip Wong, Chief of Technology and Innovation, ESCAP Session 1 9-Dec-2019
Mr. Feng Tian, Dean of Intelligent Industry Research Institute, SenseTime, China Session 3 9-Dec-2019
Prof. Jiutian Zhang, Assistant Director, Institute of Green Economy, Counsellors’… Session 2 9-Dec-2019